Wells Fargo looks across all of its business lines when making investment decisions and selecting technology vendors. 

For the $1.7 trillion bank, working with vendors is “about the direction of the firm, our customer-forward focus and then thinking about intention and modernizing our core infrastructure,” Jazz Samra, head of strategic partnerships and innovation initiatives, told Bank Automation News.

When investing in or selecting a partner, Wells Fargo uses a three- to five-year timeline to calculate return on investment, depending on the line of business and tech needs, Samra said. 

Additionally, the bank considers the following when selecting a fintech partner: 

• Unmet consumer needs based on behavior-based research;  

• Existing technology that can be embedded to solve bankwide challenges;  

• Time to market; and 

• Scalability of the solution. 

Wells Fargo looks toward partnerships that can add value to its entire business model rather than a single issue, Samra said. 

For example, Wells Fargo selected Google Cloud in 2021 for its cloud services and has tapped several of the tech giant’s services since integrating its conversational AI platform into Wells Fargo’s AI assistant. 

In 2022, the bank rolled out its AI-driven chatbot, Fargo, powered by Dialogflow and has continued to modify the bot to meet customer needs. Since launch, Fargo has added the following self-service capabilities: 

• Activate or deactivate debit cards; 

• Check credit card limits; 

• Search for transactions; and 

• Monitor spending.  

Wells Fargo will continue to deepen its relationship with existing vendors like Google while evaluating emerging technology providers to improve its technology infrastructure, Samra said.